It looks like Washington State Democrats and their chair, Dwight Pelz have broken ranks with 49th Legislative District incumbent representative, Jim Moeller and finally come out and endorse the only Democrat to challenge Republican, Jaime Herrera Beutler for her 3rd Congressional District seat.

If readers recall, it was Jim Moeller and his inflated ego who led the effort at the Democrats State Convention to deny Haugen the party endorsement, primarily due to his sensible stance on the Columbia River Project, covered at Why Was Jon Haugen ‘Sanctioned’ By the Democrats?

“Democrats didn’t say exactly what made them decide to now endorse Haugen, but Washington State Democrats’ Chairman Dwight Pelz on Monday called Haugen a ‘strong candidate.’ Pelz also said Democrats ‘will spend the next six weeks working (to) elect Democrats and ensure this election keeps our state moving forward’.”

Left out of the article is that it was Jim Moeller leading the charge to deny Haugen the endorsement, presumably due to Moeller being one of the Columbian’s sweethearts who does no wrong.

Moeller has not left a comment at the time of this writing, but I am left pondering why the sudden switch, given that Moeller continually shows himself to be a power to be reckoned with in the Democrat Party.

Moeller has a record of ignoring constituent’s desires and push’s a far left agenda over actually dealing with the economic doldrums over a decade of Democrat majorities in the state has left us in. Homosexual marriage took precedent over a $1.5 Billion budget gap this last session and when he saw the initiative once again requiring a 2/3 majority vote for tax increases passed overwhelmingly in his district, Moeller quickly signed on to a lawsuit to invalidate constituents votes.

As I recall, the vote at the Democrats convention was fairly close in denying Haugen the endorsement, passing by a slim margin with delegates falling on both sides of the matter.

I’m not too sure why the CRC is no longer a large enough issue to continue denying him the endorsement, but I am curious seeing that Jon Haugen has removed his statement in opposition to the CRC from his campaign issues page.

Whether that means he now supports CRC at least somewhat or is hiding his stance, I don’t know. All I see is the statement previously shown on his page no longer exists. (Statement in opposition since added)

Whatever the case, Haugen stands for other issues that should cause concern for any conservative. He supports homosexual marriage, Obamacare, raising taxes on the wealthy, the Global Warming fallacy and “Green” energy.

Along with his far left stands, there is also the matter of when he played the Race Card towards Vancouver outspoken citizen, Larry Patella, indicating he remains a strong supporter of Barack Obama, undoubtedly desiring to see ‘San Fran Nan’ (Nancy Pelosi) returned as Speaker of the House along with the House retaken to a Democrat majority.

Jim Moeller silence in the comments so far is troubling to me as he is usually real quick to jump in and offer supportive comments or blast someone. Whether this means he is smarting from being slapped by the Democrat Party or remaining silent knowing Jon modified his CRC opposition is unknown.

But it cannot be forgotten that Jim Moeller has expressed in the past that he will not support any candidate who doesn’t support the CRC. I’ll be watching to see if Moeller has anything supportive to say about Jon Haugen.

I remain highly skeptical of our current congresswoman, Jaime Herrera Beutler, but cannot offer any support to Jon Haugen based off of a past statement on the CRC that has now been removed from his website. (Since re-added)

I also doubt this late party endorsement will be of much good to unseat Herrera Beutler, in part due to the redistricting in her favor and that in the primary election, Jon only received 39% of the votes.

For now, I will sit back and congratulate the Democrats for doing what they should have done long ago and relish the hopeful thought they have stuck their finger in Jim Moeller’s eye, also something they should have done long ago.

UPDATE: Since this post was posted, Jon Haugen has added his views on the CRC to his new website.

His issues page now includes,

Columbia River Crossing

We have spent over $200 million on a plan that the U.S. Coast Guard has said is not viable (the bridge is plan is too low over the river). The bridge at I-205 was completed in 1983 at a cost of $179.5 million, that should be our template. A supplemental, six lane, no light rail, no toll bridge could be built for less than $600 million at I-5 saving $3 billion. Leave the current safe bridges in place. If the citizen’s of Clark County vote to build light rail in the future one of the current bridges could be ungraded and used for that purpose.

“I’m not too sure why the CRC is no longer a large enough issue to continue denying him the endorsement, but I am curious seeing that Jon Haugen has removed his statement in opposition to the CRC from his campaign issues page.”

Maybe you answered your own question Lew – if Haugen dropped his opposition to CRC, Moeller may have dropped his to Haugen. At the end of the day, getting party support wins out over principles most every time.

Jeesh Lew – your right about Haugen. I thought he was more of a centrist Democrat, but looking at his website I see that he is a typical far-left Washington Democrat. How does he think he can generate enough support in the 3rd?

My guess too is that he has dropped his opposition to CRC. Kind of stupid of him – it was the only thing giving him traction. My neighbor has his yard sign so I was going to take a closer look at him anyway (’cause I like my neighbor). I’m glad you had the link to his website. There’s no way I can support him – though I’m not a big fan of Hererra-Beutler either.

As a member of Jon Haugen’s campaign staff, I can guarantee that he has not changed his position on the CRC. If you go to Jon’s Facebook page, he left this post on Sept. 9th, detailing his plan for a cheaper alternative to the CRC.

“How to build a supplemental bridge at I-5 for less than $3.6 billion: Use the I-205 bridge as a template. This cement-segmented style bridge was completed in 1983 for $180 million. By leaving the two current, safe, well maintained bridges we then build a supplemental bridge (six lanes, pedestrian/bike lane, with safety shoulders-similar to I-205).
The Oregon Department of Transportation has said the current bridges, with proper maintenance, can be used for an additional 50 years.
By leaving the current bridges: one bridge could be used for light rail in the future when the citizens of Clark County decide they need that transportation option. Total cost is less than $600 million, (bringing thousands of good paying construction jobs!) without the added burden of tolls up to $12 that would be borne, predominately, by the citizens of Washington.”